Packing



N. B. MILLER May 19,. 1936.

PACKING Filed Feb. 20, i934 INVENTOR Y /Vamza/z JVz'ZZer Patented May 19, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to lan improvement in packings, and particularly to an improvement in packings designed for use in the stuiiing boxes of piston rods, plungers, and the like.

An object of the invention is to provide a pack ing Which may be easily and cheaply manufactured and which will be durable and more effective than packings of its general type as heretofore used.

A further object is to provide a packing which is substantially square in cross section, so that it will be best adapted for economical use in stufling boxes, and whi'ch is more eicient than square packings as heretofore produced.

A further object isto provide a square packing of the type indicated having component layers arranged to stand at an angle to the surface of the shaft or plunger and in which an appreciable group of said layers will be continuous from the inner or shaft engaging surface` of the packing `to the outer or stuing box engaging surface of the packing.

A further object i's to provide a packing of the type indicated made up of alternate layers of canvas and rubber-like material arranged at an angle with respect to the square cross sectional contour of the packing, and to so-design the packing as to pro'vide requisite strength in certain of the corner portions of said packing.

A further object is to provide a packing of the type indicated of such construction that when in use certain integral portions thereof will be adapted for a wedge like movement, under gland pressure and under pressure of steam or the like, into tighter engagement with the shaft, while other portions will serve to facilitate this movement, and to at the same time provide a tight engagement with the shaft.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less specic than those referred to above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed out in the course of the following description of the elements, combinations, arrangements of parts and applications of principles constituting the invention; and the scope of protection contemplated will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing which is to be taken as a part of this specification, and in which I have shown merely a preferred form of embodiment of the invention:-

Fig. 1 is a transverse sectional viewthrough a lstuiling box showing a series of layers of packing therein constructed in accordancev with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectionalview, partly in perspective, of a piece of packing constructed in accordance with this invention, and

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but illustrating a modification.

Referring to the drawing for describing in detail the structure which is illustrated therein, and referring rst to the structure Figs. l and 2, the reference character L indicates an ordinary stuing box having a seat or recess l therein closed by the usual gland G, said seat serving to accommodate the packing, indicated generally by the` reference character H.

The shaft 2 passes through the stuing box and the packing H fits closely thereto in the customary manner.

The packing H as illustrated in Fig. 1 is made up from a stri'pof material constructed as seen The manner of constructing the strip in accordance with this invention is clearly illustrated in Fig. 2. The strip` as seen in Fig. 2 is Yof laminated construction, being made up of alternate layersof relatively stiff material 8, such as canvas or the like, and relatively resilient material 9, Ysuchas rubber, or rubber composition.

The material 8 may be either a close woven or awloose woven fabric. It may be either of wire, cotton, asbestos or other suitable like material, or it may beof sheet metal or other appropriate material, perforated or otherwise, or it may in fact be of any material suitable to form layers relatively stiffer than the intervening layers of materialQ.V

The material 9 may be of any composition of rubber, or the like, and it i's preferably of such consistency that it adheres to the material 8 and-binds the whole into a heterogeneous mass.

A structure in which the material 8 consists of canvas, .and` the material 9 consists of rubber vulcanized into and between the layers of canvas so thatitholds the layers connected together and at the same time spaced apart, provides a very desirable and effective result.

The method of manufacturing this packing consistsmerely in spreading a plurality of sheets of the material 9 on top of each other, with intervening layers of the material 8, and of then cutting. up this .pile into strips having the cross sectional shape and relation of layers, as indicated inFig. 2.

As clearly illustrated the strips are so cut that the layers, or laminations, stand in angular disposition within the cross sectional square contour of the strip and it is essential here to note that the angular disposition is such that those layers lying in the region as indicated by the lines X-X and Y-Y extend continuously through the packing from the inner or shaft engaging surface l of the packing to the outer or stuffing box engaging surface Il of the packing, while those layers lying outside of said lines X and Y, and completing the corner portions of the packing, are successively shorter, decreasing in length outwardly to the extreme corners as at l2-l2.

The cross sectional contour of the strip is substantially `exactly square, and this is for various reasons of practicability and economy in fitting the packing into stuffing boxes of different depths, the advantage of which is so well known to those acquainted with this art as to require no specific reference here.

Packing of this type as heretofore constructed has had its laminas arranged at substantially exactly 45 cater-cornered through the packing so that only a single lamination or layer, at 8 or 9,

, is of full length extending from the surface I0 entirely through the packing to the surface Il, such a single layer being negligible as a continuous stiifening element between said surfaces.

` According to the present invention it is proposed that the laminas be arranged at an angle of something less than 45 from the vertical, with respect to the axis of the shaft, and it has been found in practice that a packing of this type having its lamin thus at an angle less than 45 possesses certain important characteristics of improvement in operating efficiency which denne a noteworthy improvement in the art.

Amongst these advantages may be mentioned that it provides for a plurality of continuous laminse, as for instance those indicated between the lines X--X and Y-Y in Fig. 2, all of which laminae it will be seen extend entirely through the body from the surface l to the surface'l I.

` These continuous laminas, considered as a group,

, constitute a relaively iirm and stiff section of a thickness X-Y and continuous from surface IU to ll, said section X-Y inclining at a plus 45 angle from the surface of the shaft.

The steep angle relationship between the section X-Y and the surface of the shaft renders said section more easily wedged into greater steepness against the shaft by a given amount of gland pressure or steam pressure than would be the case if the laminas of the packing were at a 45 f, angle.

A closer fit for the packing against the shaft in use is thus provided for. l Y; Also, the group of full length laminas X-Y diagonally through the center of the strip, by reason of the stiffness which it possesses as a group or section, is not liable to buckle between the surfaces lil and Il in use. It also reinforces and holds against buckling the laminas lying outside the lines X-Y, and constitutes in fact a sort of back-bone from which the remainder of the strip the laminae stood at a 45 angle, and that thereby said lamin add relatively greater strength and stiffness to the corner portions of the strip than would be the case if said laminas were at a 45 angle. This is important as giving to the corner portions of the strip outside the section X-Y greater resistance against breaking down in use, and this of course adds to the durability and life of the packing.

In use the packing constructed as above described is arranged within the stufling box as seen in Fig. 1, care being taken to so place the same that the lamin thereof diverge from the shaft in the manner as indicated. Steam or other pressure attempting to pass outwardly through the stuiing box, that is in the direction as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 1, and endeavoring to pass between the packing and the shaft, and supplemented by the gland pressure, will cause the diverging laminae, and particularly the sections X-Y of the several layers, to swing longitudinally outwardly and radially inwardly of the box so that the inner surface portions l0 of the packing is made to wedge against the shaft with the outer surface portions ll impinging against the inner annular surface of the box, the outer ends or edges of the respective laminae having in effect a pivotal engagement against the surface of the box, the inner ends of the laminas swinging relatively about said pivots, and rmly against the shaft.

The material constituting the layers 9--9 is sufliciently resilient and elastic to permit the required amount of sliding movement of the lamin with respect to each other.

It will be apparent that since the laminas in sections X-,Y are normally more nearly the vertical than the horizontal, it follows that a less amount of steam or gland pressure, as above mentioned, will be required to move them in a given degree closer to the vertical, and into tighter Wedge engagement with the shaft, than would be the case if said laminas were normally at 45 from the vertical.

Due to the fact that the corner forming laminae that is those laminae between the lines X-Y and the extreme corners l2 of the strip, do not extend continuously between the inner and outer surfaces of the strip they facilitate movement of the laminas in section X-Y as set forth. When a series of layers as 3, 4, 5, 6 and 1 are positioned within a stuing box the corner forming lamin of adjacent layers throughout constitute groups of relatively broken lamin of different lengths capable of moving more freely relative to each other than are the lamin of the intermediate groups or sections X-Y.

Thus it will be seen that in the length of the stuffing box there occurs alternate groups of broken and unbroken laminas, the former being relatively easily movable with respect to each other to facilitate the movement of the latter, and the movement of the latter operatingV always to squeeze the former from between the latter and against the shaft.

The normal near-vertical angle of the unbroken lamin makes the squeezing of the broken laminaI toward the shaft more readily accomplished than if the laminas were at a 45 angle.

As illustrated in Fig. 3 this invention comprehends that if desired two or more layers of the packing strip Fig. 2 may be connected together for handling as a single strip.

As many changes could be made in this construction Without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawing, shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent isz- 1. A packing comprising a body which is square in cross section and which is made up throughout of alternate layers of relatively stiff and relatively resilient material, said layers extending obliquely through the body and consisting of an intermediate group and opposite corner-forming groups, the intermediate group being of a thickness not less than 1A; the thickness of the body and its layers being of a length extending uninterruptedly through the body from the inner to the outer surface of the body, and the layers of the corner-forming groups being of successively decreasing length to opposite corners of the body.

2. A packing made up in strip form of square cross-section and adapted to be placed in a stufling box so that a plurality of layers of the strip lie side by side to fill the box in the usual manner, and said strip being made up of an intermediate group of unbroken lamina: which extend edge-wise substantially through the entire thickness of the strip from the inner to the outer surface thereof and opposite groups of corner-forming lamin which are of successively decreasing sizes, whereby when said strip is in position lling the stuffing box the several layers of the strip co-operate to provide throughout the length of the box alternate groups of broken and unbroken lamin in engagement with the shaft at the inner surface of the groups and in engagement with the inner surface of the box at the outer surface of the groups, and all said groups being of approximately equal thickness lengthwise of the box.

3. A packing made up in strip form of square cross-section and adapted to be placed in a stuifing box so that a plurality of layers of the packing lie side by side to iill the box with the inner surface of the strip engaging the shaft, and said strip being made up of alternate layers of relatively stiif and relatively less stiff material all of which layers are arranged to stand at a plus 45 angle relative to the shaft engaging surface of the strip.

4. A packing made up in strip form of square cross-section and 'adapted to be placed in a stuiiing box so that a plurality of layers or sections of the packing lie side by side to ll the box with the inner surface of the strip engaging the shaft, and said strip consisting of an intermediate group of lamin and opposite groups of corner forming lamin, the lamin of the intermediate gro fp being movable with respect to each other ard being alternately relatively stiff and less stiff and all being continuous from 

